The message from KingSpeed Race and Repair was loud and clear: if we wanted to see something really cool, we were to head to a quiet little shop just outside of the northern edge of Bowling Green, and to be there just after two in the afternoon with a camera in hand. There was a dyno involved and there was no diesel truck in sight. Be there.
We can take a hint…that’s how my wife and I wound up in the dyno cell at Jesse’s Garage. That would be Jesse Coulter, the owner of the Viper Red third-gen Camaro that we’ve seen at LS Fest and NMCA races over the years. But the focus of today’s session wasn’t a bright red Camaro, but a black 2016 Ford Mustang GT. Truth be told, we’ve known about this car since the first time we strolled into KingSpeed, but the car has been a work in progress for the last few months, only coming off of the rack recently for shakedown testing and some break-in miles.
“Wait…that’s virtually a brand-new car. What break-in miles?” Glad you asked. You see, with the hood shut, when you start the car you hear nothing out of the ordinary from the Coyote. And that’s a good thing…that’s exactly what Mustang owner Casey Flora wants you to think. He doesn’t want you thinking about Manley pistons and H-beam rods in the stock bores. He doesn’t want you thinking about the anything has been done to the 6R80 transmission that KingSpeed built for him. He doesn’t want you to know that SCT tuner Sai Lee has been working on dialing in the twin On3 turbochargers, or just how much forced air is going through the intake, or how much E85 the triple fuel pumps are pushing through the injectors.
All he wants you to see is a 3,600 mile Ford Mustang that’s all black. Everything is hidden with the hood, trunk and mouths shut. At idle, it just sounds like a brand-new Mustang. On the dyno pull we witnessed, however, we learned three things: the pressure valves in the exhaust allow the Mustang to go from stock to serious expletives in a blink of an eye, Coyotes love boost, and the power figures on this otherwise unassuming little S550 are eye-raising, even in a world of Hellcats and Demons. That’s the closest hint we’re going to give out.
If you’re coming through the Western Kentucky area and you feel like trying out some of the locals for a quick hustle, consider yourself warned. Apparently the car wasn’t quite up to it’s potential when we saw the dyno pull…Mike from KingSpeed was trying to determine if there was a pressure leak in the car’s plumbing. We saw a half-assed dyno pull that would be the envy for most people. Consider yourself warned.
How refreshing!
A car builder whose last car ran an LS and is now developing a killer Ford. This is the mark of a man who just loves cars and is not bothered what powers them. Indeed there are a few Chevy powered and indeed Chevy built cars I would be proud to own – The Gordon Keeble and the Corvair for instance. I only rant at people who blindly stick an LS into everything because it is easy and cheaper. They forget that for a smaller budget they could just strengthen and tune the motor the car came with for more reliability.
Still none of this matters as by the time my grandson gets his first car it will be an electric slug that will only have a range of 30 miles….